Mothers and babies to benefit from innovation competition

Two winners of the Trailblazer innovation competition at The University of Queensland are researching ways to improve the lives of pregnant women and new born babies.

A neonatal hearing screening device to reduce the amount of time taken to test the hearing of babies and reduce the cost at the same time developed by Dr Andrew Bradley was one of the winners. The project aims to improve the cost-effectiveness of universal neonatal hearing screening which will make the screening more accessible in regional and remote parts of Australia as well as in developing nations.
Singing for You and Your Baby, a program developed by Dr Elizabeth Mackinlay and Dr Felicity Baker to teach first time mothers the benefits of singing to their babies, also won.

Difficulties in getting babies to sleep is a typical problem mothers report and this package will enable mothers to experience constructive parenting techniques by encouraging lullaby singing and healthy mother-infant bonding.

Run by UQ’s primary commercialisation company, UniQuest Pty Ltd, Trailblazer is an annual event designed to reward and inspire researchers as well as promote innovative research with commercial potential.

In 2006, entries were received from all UQ’s faculties with 11 awards presented to staff and students.

The quality of Trailblazer entries continued to get better and better each year the competition was held, according to UniQuest Managing Director David Henderson.

“We were greatly encouraged by the calibre of entries, which was reflective of the outstanding research being undertaken at UQ,” Mr Henderson said.

Four winners were selected in the open category, each receiving $7500 to progress their research:
• Dr Andrew Bradley (EPSA Faculty) with a neonatal hearing screening device;
• Dr Frederic Meunier (BACS Faculty) with a selective motoneuron delivery system;
• Ms Naomi Diplock (NRAVS Faculty) with a biological control for Parkinsonia aculeate; and
• Dr Elizabeth Mackinlay and Dr Felicity Baker (EPSA and Arts faculties) with a guide for first time mothers on singing to their babies.

The three awards in the student category were won by:
• Mr Barnaby Osborne (EPSA Faculty) with a filament wound carbon fibre telescope mirror;
• Ms Catherine Hynes (SBS Faculty) with a Social IQ Test; and
• Ms Shelley Wilkinson (Health Sciences Faculty) with The Pregnancy Pocketbook.

For interviews or further information contact: Jane Milne or Julia Renaud, UniQuest (3365 4037 or 0409 767 199).

Further details about the award-winners follows:

UNIQUEST TRAILBLAZER 2006

Winners - Open
• Dr Andrew Bradley (employee) School of ITEE, EPSA
A Rapid and Robust Neonatal Hearing Screening Device

• Ms Naomi Diplock (student) School of Agronomy and Horticulture, NRAVS
Parkygone – A biological control for Parkinsonia aculeate, one of Australia’s top 20 weeds

• Dr Frederic Meunier (employee) School of Biomedical Sciences, BACS
Selective Motoneuron Delivery System

• Dr Elizabeth Mackinlay and Dr Felicity Baker (employee) ATSIS Unit, Arts
Singing for you and your baby: An essential guide for first time mothers

Winners – Student
• Mr Barnaby Osborne, School of Mechanical Engineering, EPSA
Filament wound carbon fibre telescope mirror

• Ms Catherine Hynes, School of Psychology, SBS
Social IQ Test - a battery of tests that measure social skills, social judgment and self-awareness in people with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

• Ms Shelley Wilkinson, School of Human Movement Studies, Health Sciences
The Pregnancy Pocketbook - a package to encourage pregnancy wellness by empowering women at a significant time in the lifecycle - when they are most motivated to invest in not only their health, but in that of their unborn child.

Highly Commended - Open
• Dr Tristan Croll, School of Engineering, EPSA
A device that allows the production of tailored, highly engineered tissue scaffolds, while meeting FDA guidelines for sterility.

• Dr Marcus Niebert, School of Engineering, EPSA
HiLite - Viral Delivery of Positive MRI Contrast Agents

Highly Commended - Student
• Mr Brendan Mooney, School of Psychology, SBS
The Financial Capacity Measure (FCM), which is a measure designed to assess a person`s financial capacity/competency.

• Mr Insu Song, ITEE, EPSA
Synthesis of High performance Agent Chips: The basic idea is to directly compile agent specifications into logic circuits to improve performance by several million times and produce very robust systems that require neither CPUs nor operating systems.